120 likes | 280 Vues
THE MELTING POT APPROACH TO SENIOR DESIGN. Michael A. Latcha, Ph.D. Subramaniam Ganesan, Ph.D. Edward Y.L. Gu, Ph.D. Richard E. Haskell, Ph.D. Reasons for a change of practice. Duplication of effort, different expectations and outcomes between departments Integrate knowledge and skills
E N D
THE MELTING POT APPROACH TO SENIOR DESIGN Michael A. Latcha, Ph.D. Subramaniam Ganesan, Ph.D. Edward Y.L. Gu, Ph.D. Richard E. Haskell, Ph.D.
Reasons for a change of practice • Duplication of effort, different expectations and outcomes between departments • Integrate knowledge and skills • Multidisciplinary teamwork • Accreditation requirements SOLUTION: Schedule all senior engineering design courses together on same days, at same times, with three experienced faculty members
The “Melting Pot” Philosophy • The “Melting Pot” Approach • All engineering disciplines in one room • Student Design Teams • Combining all engineering disciplines to be successful • Choice of Design Project • Non-industrial, multidisciplinary, no experience necessary • Never Answer a Question • The Importance of Competition
Project • Design a kit for Sophomore Design • Upcoming course • Autonomous line-following vehicle that can carry a 15-lb payload along a closed-circuit track up to 300-ft long • Additional functions must be discussed but not necessarily designed • Maximum cost: $150
Competition • Must function on non-straight portion of track with 15-lb payload • Performance measure: fastest adjusted time to traverse course • Can make up to 3 runs, with modifications between • Penalties: • 5 second penalty for hitting obstacles • 1 sec/ft penalty for not finishing course
Week 1 – Introduction • Uncomfortable silence, confusion, wide-eyed looks, disbelief • Describe project and competition to class, establish website as main communication tool • Student profiles to gather information for team assignments • Design teams assigned, work begins
Week 3 – Design proposals • Required before purchases can be made • Level of detail range from minimal to extreme • Current designs have little resemblance to proposed designs • Team activity mainly divided between disciplines with little interdisciplinary communication
Week 8 – Oral Progress Reports • 20-minute PowerPoint presentations • “tell the story” • Every team member speaks • No group had a functioning vehicle • All groups had all necessary components • Much more interdisciplinary activity, CS/ME and EE/CE
Week 12 – Current status • Only one group still has not seen their vehicle follow a line • All other groups are improving speed, accuracy and tracking - 3 weeks early • Most successful groups work and meet as a whole, everyone involved with all aspects • Least successful groups are still passing vehicles between discipline sub-groups
Future project ideas • Autonomous vehicles that: • seek out and park into parallel spaces • seek out and extinguish fires • play sports (shoot baskets) • Teams of inter-communicating vehicles that cooperate to perform a function • Play soccer, marching band • Anything with fire or explosives
Conclusions After April 15, 2004 see http://personalwebs.oakland.edu/~latcha/